THE PROBLEM: If MC is already running when I connect the iPod, MC complains "There is no database on your iPod"... must be initialized, etc.
iPod Classic 6th gen, unmodified, 160GB hard drive. MC20, 20.0.63. The iPod is running firmware version 1.1.2 PC. Windows 8.1. iTunes 9.2.1 is installed, but the same problem occurs without iTunes on the machine.
I've tried wiping the iPod's hard drive and restoring from within iTunes - doesn't help. Note that iTunes 9.2.1 does create a MC-compatible database on the iPod. (I am NOT seeing the ~"something is sync'ing with your iPod that uses a later format than we support," message from MC. That is not my issue.)
While MC says "no database", browsing the iPod in Windows File Explorer shows that the expected directory structure is still there. Eject the iPod, and the iPod's database functions all work, so the database must be there.
WORKAROUND: If I Exit MC, then connect the iPod, then start MC, MC is happy.
(except that if I then select the iPod in MC's left pane, MC starts in yet AGAIN with "Saving &*^%! tag changes" on about 7500 of the 20,000+ files on the iPod - it just did this minutes ago! There flatly
cannot be 7,500 files with changed tags, darn you! See my two posts today in
this thread).
In fact, when this "no database" comes up, I don't even have to eject the iPod to fix it. Just exit MC and start it again, and MC sees the database on the iPod and is happy. (Except for thousands of tag changes that it has to chug through before I can do anything else with it.)
So now I can do an "incremental sync", just syncing stuff that is new or changed in my MC database, like new podcasts.
(Except... because of the thousands of needlessly saved tag changes, it insists on syncing all of those files too. e.g. if about 7500 songs had their tag changes saved to the iPod, then the number of files it's going to send during an "incremental sync" is about 7500 more than it needs to be. Ugh! It's still much better than restoring the iPod and syncing 23,000 or so songs, but...)
But why should I have to do this? (And why all the "saving tag changes", ad nauseum?)
This (requiring MC be not-running when the iPod is connected) is a recent issue. It's post MC 20, but I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly which of the recent updates to MC 20 it's associated with. Of course it might be due to some other change on the system, or a change somewhere in the myriad of options.